Clandestine

"A spy." Aella growled down at the intruder.

"Yes!" the speckled coatl said brightly.

"And that prevents me from breaking your spine in two, because...?"

Clandestine grinned, in that snake-like way coatls have. "You really can't trust me. But I can assure you the information I gain is true, and helpful to you. Maybe it goes somewhere else. Maybe it doesn't. But..." she lifted a claw carefully, slowly, and traced it along the bone-like skeleton of the membrane's structure. "We Plaguelings have our ways. And we respect strength, above all else. Those half-feral clans outside, they see dragons in a tower, and assume you're all soft. The right information coming out, about the fierce warriors you have-"

"Cut the flattery," Aella snarled. "Why are you here?"

"Oh, is anyone meant to be where they are, really? I follow the winds, and...."

The massive ridgeback leveled her lightning spear to her shoulder, and crouched. Clandestine sputtered to a halt.

"Honestly? I assume you pay well. You're a wealthy clan, and new here. Your leaders are not as foolish as I assumed, plopping straight into the quarantine zone with all the plans laid. I assume you'd like the lay of the land."

The elderly warrior posted her spear flat against the spongey ground, and scratched her scarred chin, before grunting and gesturing her to follow. They rounded the great base of the egg-like tower, humming with latent plague energy, until they reached a flat boney platform, laying a few lengths away from the base. The coatl glanced up at her escort with a questioning tilt.

"Stand here, spy." Aella growled, after a beat.

"Not until you tell me what it does."

"Clever," Aella replied. "Too clever. You forget your...situation." The membrane behind Clandestine popped and squelched, and two more dragons materialized into the Scarred Wasteland. A dark, dusky coatl, in the peaked cap of an archmage, and a faded yellow spiral, claws augmented with razors and eyes glinting with bloodlust.

"Now, friends, I don't want any trouble-"

"We aren't your friends," Kadam said brightly. "At least, not until you stand on that platform, and bleed your paw until we're happy."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard the lady," Matilde said, trilling in the native language of coatls. "Or we split you from wing to maw, and feed you to the tower. The choice is yours."

Clandestine looked behind her - a toxic pool - above her - a towering, angry ridgeback - and to all sides - surrounded by violent mages. She took a deep breath and stepped onto the boney platform.

She half-expected the platform to simply eat her, but in her line of work, calculated risks were worth it. They already had enough to overpower and kill her several times over. They were at least considering her offer. She glanced at the mages, pulled out her dagger, and slit her paw as instructed.

"She really just did it, huh?" Kadam commented, where she'd curled around Matilde's neck. "We basically had to cut the last guy's paw ourselves."

"Plague dragons are just like that." Clandestine glanced at their eyes. Much to her surprise, the ridgeback decked in machinery hailed from Shadow. It sounded like a story she was eager to hear.

"Don't just stand there like a fainting goat. Touch your paw to it."

Biting back a smart remark - she still wasn't sure if the dragons would simply kill her for fun at this point - she did so. Nothing happened.

"Now that I'm bound to whatever blood oath this is, will you tell me what it is I've sworn to do?"

Matilde and Kadam simply laughed. Aella sighed, and explained: "Not a blood oath. This keys you into the filter, so it doesn't eat you. But." she leaned down, close enough for Clandestine to smell her breath. It stunk. "It also means the filter knows you. One wrong step, a breath in the wrong direction, and the next time you pass through, you die."

"Sounds like a lot of trust for a dragon you've caught at your borders," she said, before catching herself. Aella's breath had thrown her poise.

"Oh, trust has nothing to do with this," Matilde said, tossing her neck to dislodge the spiral, who looped in an intricate figure-8 before squelching back through the filter. "It's just business."


steal a dragon - 1

@Darsoucrit - I love Clandestine so much! Her apparel goes so well with her colors, and I loved reading her lore! Spooky lil' spy; she's just eye candy to stare at, she looks way too beautiful! <3